Apple: you must be at least 17 years old to use Opera

This week, the Opera web browser became the first non-native browser made available in Apple's Mac App Store. While Apple approved the browser, it still managed to hurt its competitor by putting this ridiculous label on it: "You must be at least 17 years old to download this app."

Opera has reacted in good humor. "I'm very concerned," Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products for Opera Software, said in a statement. "Seventeen is very young, and I am not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It's very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features. I think the download requirement should be at least 18."

The company then offered a workaround for those under 17: just visit opera.com and download it yourself. "We do not ask for your age or your credit card number," an Opera spokesperson pointed out. "Please, get your parents' permission before using this browser."

Remember the big hoopla around Apple blocking alternative browsers on iOS? Cupertino finally had to give up because the legal system got involved. On the Mac, Apple couldn't simply block third-party browsers from the platform because they've been available for years. Still, the company wanted to make Opera look worse than Safari, and this is apparently the company's solution.